In general, monopolar electrosurgery is the passage of high-frequency current to tissue through a single heating (or active) electrode to a return electrode positioned remotely from the active electrode where heating does not take place. Bipolar electrosurgery is the passage of high frequency current to tissue between two commonly-supported electrodes where both actively heat tissue.
Monopolar configurations are widely used for general cutting and coagulation procedures, usually utilizing applications of energy of 1 to 5 seconds. Monopolar electrosurgery is widely recognized to be ideal for spray coagulation where there is heating across a surface of tissue proximal to an active electrode. The current field will include a large portion of the patient, but will have high current density only near the active electrode.
Bipolar configurations are widely used for procedures such as coagulation and ablation of tissue where a volume of tissue is positioned between two active electrodes and heated for several seconds, or tens of seconds. The current field in a bipolar device is contained within the neighborhood of the two electrodes.
Many surgeons regularly alternate between bipolar and monopolar instruments in a single surgical procedure. For example, an operating room may utilize ValleyLab monopolar generators and a Wolf bipolar generator all stacked on a single equipment cart. In addition, current monitoring systems, such as an Active Electrode Monitor “AEM” made by Encision, Inc. of Boulder, Colo., may also be incorporated into the overall hardware configuration. Such equipment setups are especially common during OB/GYN procedures. Because the change over between the two generators and instruments takes some time and operating room resources, it is desirable to have a single generator/AEM monitor/controller system that utilizes a single specialized instrument capable of operating in either monopolar or bipolar electrical modes. Such an equipment configuration would minimize changeover time or effectively eliminate changeover time altogether. A description of Active Electrode Monitoring can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,401, the details of which are incorporated by reference in its entirety. Encision, Inc. of Boulder, Colo. manufactures several AEM systems and configurations for use during electrosurgical procedures.
Given that it is preferable for a single generator to be used with an AEM monitor and controller, it is also desirable to avoid processing either the monopolar or the bipolar outputs in order to utilize both electrical modes (e.g. by deriving the bipolar output from the monopolar output). This configuration allows transparent functioning of the generator manufacturer's electrosurgical modes but requires that the two outputs be isolated in order to prevent damage or distortion.
While the presently utilized combinations of devices are functional, they do not provide the ability to quickly and easily switch between bipolar and monopolar modes and cannot avoid using multiple tools and generator hardware to accomplish both types of electrosurgery. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings and are summarized below in the accompanying description. It is to be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit the invention to the forms described herein. One skilled in the art can recognize that there are numerous modifications, equivalents and alternative constructions that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the claims. Numerous other embodiments, implementations, and details of the invention are easily recognized by those of skill in the art from the following descriptions and claims.